Housing minister prepares to face grilling motion

New electricity rates, dates remain unchanged

Minister of State for Housing Affairs Yasser Abul continued preparations to discuss the grilling motion filed against him by MP Shuaib AlMuwaizri, as he met with Public Authority for Housing Welfare officials to prepare answers to all inquiries. Well-informed sources said that Abul would brief the cabinet on his opinion about those inquiries and that he would be ready for the motion after discussing the grillings filed against His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. The sources added that Muwaizri inquired about allegations of financial violations in certain contracts. Meanwhile, the housing authority will declare the name of the company that won a contract to provide consultancy services for road grids and infrastructure at South Sabah al-Ahmed City project in June.

Educational directors

The Ministry of Education’s (MOE) administrative sector recently addressed the Civil Service Commission’s (CSC) request to appoint directors for the six educational areas after reducing their deputation period from three years to one. MOE also requested reviewing the ‘limited monthly payment’ contracts signed with bedoons and others, requesting entitling them to fully paid annual leaves and maternity leaves similar to those given to other MOE employees.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammed Al-Fares received a letter from Minister of Justice and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Dr Faleh Al-Azab informing him of the parliament’s approval of a proposal made by MP Dr Mohammed Hadi AlHuwilah to build special training centers where teachers could receive special training courses on using modern technology in teaching, giving due care to teaching English and computer sciences starting with primary schools.

Disability allowance

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor And Minister of State For Economic Affairs Hind AlSabeeh stressed that the total number of nonKuwaiti disabled children of Kuwaiti mothers registered with the disability authority were 1,352, and that they all receive all privileges as per law number 8/2008 including healthcare, education and vocational rights. Sabeeh added that the total number of those who deserve housing grants were 31,672, while there are 4,468 unemployed mothers taking care of disabled people and receive monthly aids as per decree number 23/ 2013. Sabeeh added that 12,273 disabled people received monthly allowances.

Sports corruption

MP Rakan Al-Nisf stressed the need to conduct an investigation concerning US allegations that Kuwaiti officials were involved in bribery and corruption cases in both the FIFA and the Asian Olympic Council. “Kuwait has to investigate how far those scandals are related to suspending Kuwait’s international sports activities,” he underlined, pointing to confessions made by FIFA’s former auditing committee member and the chairman of Guam Federation about receiving briberies from Kuwaiti officials to affect the decisions made by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). “Those confessions include highly important information,” he added, urging the public anti-corruption authority to investigate the matter.

Retirement

Ministry of Public Works’ (MPW) Undersecretary Awatif Al-Ghuinaim said both citizens and expats who had been in service for 34 years would be referred to retirement by September. In another concern, Ghunaim said that MPW’s technical committee had finished technical studies of biddings made to build a ministries complex in Jahra, and that the Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has been contacted with the name of the contractor who made the lowest bid of KD 329 million. Ghunaim added that statistics showed that the total number of expats working for MPW was 744, out of a total of 12,919 employees, that is only 5.7 percent, and that they received total monthly salaries of KD 406,396.

Electricity tariffs

The Ministry of Electricity and Water’s (MEW) Undersecretary Mohammad Bousherhi explained that the new electricity fare would be 5 fils per megawatt and that it be in effect on May 22 in commercial buildings (shops and markets), August 22 in investment buildings (apartment buildings), November 22 in government sector (state departments) and February 22, 2018 in all other sectors. “Private houses will be fully exempted from the fare increase,” he underlined, noting that citizens living in apartments rented in investment buildings would pay the new fare if they owned a private residence. Boushehri stressed that the parliament had refused a proposal to impose additional fares in private residences (government houses).

Livestock company

Minister of Finance Anas Al-Saleh, as well as Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Minister of Information Sheikh Mohammed AlAbdullah Al-Sabah will take part in the parliament’s financial affairs committee’s meeting today to discuss licensing the establishment of a Kuwaiti shareholding company to trade in livestock. In this regard, parliamentary sources said that the government still questions the economic value of a new livestock company, noting that the market does not need a new company as the current one was enough.